DSWD listing program: Only 100T ‘poor’ Central Visayas families

CEBU, Philippines- An estimated 100,000 families are living in Central Visayas below the poverty line.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development-7 made this assessment following its Listahanan project, which is an information management system that identifies and updates who and where the poorest families are.

Regional Director Mercedita Jabagat said that as of end of July, 921,107 households, or 90.64 percent of the 1,016,269 target, were already assessed through Listahanan, which is formerly known as the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction.

Jabagat said that of the over 921,000, an estimated 100,000 or around 11 percent are considered as poor or below the poverty line.

These families, though, would still be assessed to determine who among them are the “poorest of the poor” in the region.

Jabagat said the final list of identified poorest families will be announced after the validation process.

Under the Listahanan project, DSWD targets to assess 524,717 households in Cebu; 240,134 in Negros Oriental; 232,625 in Bohol; and 18,794 in Siquijor.

Jabagat assured that those who are not included in the program are still welcome.

She said that during the validation and finalization period, families who are not visited will be given a chance to appeal and to be assessed.

“For those families who were not yet interviewed by our enumerators, there will still be a chance for them to be assessed,” she said, adding that the schedule of validation is to be finalized yet.

The local government unit concerned would then have an exit interview with the DSWD field personnel to ensure that all target families were interviewed and to get feedback and assessment on how DSWD performed the program.

The LGU would then issue a certificate of completion.

“We would like to thank everyone, from the provincial local government unit down to the barangay for assisting and giving guidance to our enumerators for the smooth conduct of the household assessment,” Jabagat said.  (FREEMAN)